Getty met a striking young woman with almond eyes. Her name was Talitha Pol. Born in Java of Dutch parents, she had spent her first years in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp with her mother while her father was in another camp. After the Second World War, she moved to Britain when her father remarried. Talitha Pol and J. Paul Getty Jnr married in Rome in December 1966, he in a psychedelic tie and she in an ivory velvet ensemble, complete with hood and miniskirt edged in white mink. They lived in a magnificent rooftop apartment, where they entertained such friends as Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful. By the end of the 1960s both Gettys were drug addicts. In May 1968, Talitha gave birth to a son, whom they named Tara Gabriel Galaxy Gramophone Getty, but their lives were already spinning out of control. Paul junior quit his father's business soon after, and in July 1971 Talitha Pol died in their Rome apartment. Months later, an inquiry concluded that the cause of death had been an overdose of heroin.

After Talitha's death, Getty senior announced that he was making arrangements for three-year-old Tara to be cared for by Gail Harris, Paul junior's first wife. He also added a 14th codicil to his will, removing Paul junior as an executor of the estate and banning him from inheriting any Getty Oil shares. The father's only bequest was a derisory $500. (Paul junior's income derived entirely from his grandmother's Sarah C. Getty Trust.)

Paul junior never returned to Italy, though the inquiry into Talitha's death was only part of the reason. Two years later, his own son Paul was kidnapped in Rome. For five months, he was chained to a stake in Calabria while his family dithered over whether to pay the ransom. To force their hand, the kidnappers cut off the boy's ear and sent it to a newspaper.

Negotiations with the kidnappers were hampered by the suspicion that Paul III had engineered the crime himself to raise funds. The young hostage's grandfather was remarkably unsympathetic. Getty senior spent $6m on art at Christie's in a single morning at the same time he was refusing to contribute to Paul III's ransom. Getty senior kept all his children on a short lead financially, and even on occasion cut off disbursements to them from the Sarah C. Getty Trust. As a result, Paul junior did not have the 1.7bn lire the kidnappers were demanding. In the event, he put up $850,000, and his father lent him the remaining $2.5m. The loan, Getty senior insisted, would be repaid from annual deductions Paul junior was entitled to from the Sarah C. Getty Trust. The two men never met again. Getty senior died in 1976. In 1981, Paul III took a near-lethal cocktail of prescribed drugs and suffered a massive stroke. He is completely paralysed and nearly blind. Getty's oldest daughter, Aileen, has Aids.

After Talitha's death and his son's kidnapping, Paul junior withdrew almost completely. For many years, he lived alone in a tall house on Cheyne Walk, leaving on occasion only to go into hospital. He drank heavily and ate little. He developed circulatory problems, and for a long time could walk only a few yards with great difficulty. He had cirrhosis of the liver and signs of impending diabetes. Mentally and spiritually exhausted, he eventually came to more or less live in the London Clinic. When Margaret Thatcher went to visit him to thank him for his donation to the National Gallery, she sat down on his bed and said, "Now, Mr Getty. What is the matter? We really must get you out of here."

Think of this global ethnic look as the new "haute hippie". Check out Kate Moss, Jade Jagger & old pix of the late IT girl of the 1960's-- Talitha Getty (if you can find them). Talitha was a fashion icon of hippie chic- a true bohemian beauty. Patrick Lichfield took a famous picture of Talitha & Paul Getty on their rooftop in Marrakech. In this pic, she immortalized the rich bohemian moment in an elaborate kaftan weighed down with ornate jewelry. (Unfortunately, this striking free spirit did not last long due to her lifestyle. She died of a heroin overdose in a pool in Rome in 1971).